They Exist?

For Advanced Speech class this week I have a different type of blog. This blog is a piece that I wrote in collaboration with an art student. The art student drew a few drawings to go along with it but here is the story:

Astonishing news came in today from our neighboring city in the pacific. They’re under attack. This attack is something quite unusual as well; it’s a massive dragon that the people named Castratikon. In the night, a bolt of lightening hit the ground and cracked the earth. The dragon emerged from this hole. Their military is fighting to hold it back as much as they can but all attempts to kill it are failing. The dragon seemed peaceful but the military wanted to bring it down by shooting at it. This is what is believed to have made the beast angry. He then went on to attack the city. We believe that if they are unable to kill him then we’re doing to be attacked next.  I fear for everyone and their families. Honestly, I don’t like Empire City much but I do hope that they defeat this killer beast for that reason. Here in Hawaii, everyone is already preparing to evacuate in case the dragon is not killed. We have all our things packed and we’re ready to go at a moments notice. We keep hearing news from Empire City but none of it is good. Their people are dying and their buildings and houses destroyed. Some people here are already leaving because they have no faith in Empire City’s military. I have planned to wait it out until I know for sure that the dragon is coming but sent away my family because I do not want them harmed in anyway.

As the day continued, I went out into the streets where almost everyone is now in a massive panic. I’ve decided to interview a few people. One panicked man said, “I’m getting out of here! There is no way that their failure of a military is going to defeat that ferocious beast.” This man reflects the views of many people in the city today. A calmer woman said, “I have faith. They can do it. I’m going to go home and pray for them. What happens happens but I’m not leaving my home.” She is a crazy yet brave woman. I personally would not take that route.

Waiting in my home listening to the terror outside, I hear fantastic news come in on the radio, “The dragon has been killed!” The news must have broken outside as well because suddenly the cries of terror turn into cries of joy and happiness. Everyone was hooting and hollering, “The dragon has finally been defeated by the military.” The military got the beast to the ground by shooting him in the eye and then attacked when he hit the ground, ultimately killing him. This was a great victory for them. We were glad as well because we are also safe now. Now that this event has passed, we must work harder to make sure that there are no more dragons under ground. Also, the body of the dragon along with the hole it came out of is being investigated. Further details yet to come.

I am as _________ as _________.

Yesterday in class, we were given a prompt: Fill in the blanks, [I] [am] as ________ as ________. We could fill in whatever we wanted and we could interchange the “I am” part. I filled it in and elaborated on it. Miss Lester liked what I had to say so in this blog I've decided to post my response.

I am as curious as a puppy. I ask too many questions and say "what if" too many times. Millions of scenarios go thorough my head every week. Just like puppies, I wonder around places looking for new things and I love meeting new people. I am outgoing and spontaneous; always looking for something new to do. I hate staying in just one spot for a long amount of time because I feel like moving constantly. I like being outside on nice days even if it is just sitting in the grass and sometimes I even like being outside on rainy days. I love going on runs to different places; exploring.

During the summer, I'll be outside as much as possible. I'll walk almost anywhere because I hate taking a car when the walking distance isn't that far. Also in the summer it seems like I never get tired. I'll be out trying new things constantly, getting little to no sleep. I never want to do the same things in the summer either. I always want something new and better.

When asking so many questions, I get in some trouble sometimes. Some people don't mind but others think that I'm just annoying. They'll either answer or yell. When they yell I ask, "Why are you yelling?" and they just get even madder. It makes no sense to me because I'm just curious for the answer. This happens with my mom all the time. I'll ask why she's mad and she'll tell me. Then I'll ask why she feels that way and ten more questions and she'll get really mad. I just walk away after that.

In the past year I have searched throughout almost all of the woods in Cudahy. I've gotten lost several times but yet still managed to find my way out. There are very interesting views and scenery in the woods; different sounds an animals. Looking over the cliffs looks amazing, watching the wave’s crash down then roll up onto shore. It sounds very calming as well. I loved it there because it was so peaceful and it felt as if you were the only one in the world (until a bike rider went by of course).

Coming to Terms: Alice Walker Article (Revised Edition)

For my Advanced Compostion class, we were told to post a blog every week. This week I deicided to take a revised peice from class and post it. I decided to choose this piece. Enjoy :)

Alice Walker writes about how meditation helped her after her divorce with her husband among many other problems she had faced in her life. Her drive in this piece seemed to be her love of meditation and the peace that it brings to her every day. The piece explains the ideas of meditation, the things that it can do for one, and what exactly it does for her. She is very specific and all telling (explaining all aspects).  Also, she does not hold her feelings back; she lets it all out. Walker lets all of her readers know that meditation makes her so much happier and much better. All of the “loss, confusion, sadness. Anxiety Attacks. Depression. Suicidal inclinations. Insomnia,” gone.

            Meditation helps Walker a lot. She states that it “began to seem as if my inner vision had cleaned.” Meditation has affected her in a very strong way as it does with other people and this is clear throughout the piece. She writes, “I felt the lightness of heart that comes from knowing you’ve found something truly reliable and helpful.” As the reader, one can completely agree with this statement. It is clear as the reader that the meditation she practices helped her over come many things in her life. By her writing this short article, she allows others to share insight on her life. She completely opens herself up to all criticism which is truly inspiring to the reader. Near the very end of her piece she writes, “Our way to forgiveness, our way to letting go, our way to understanding, compassion and peace”. This line basically sums up her entire writing about meditation. Everything she is trying to say, said, or was going to say comes out through this sentence to the reader.  

This text describes what meditation does for Walker very well. She also does a great job of explaining what problems she has to overcome such as her divorce and her jumpiness. She could finally listen to the radio in which she wasn’t able to do before because her soul had banned it. Although, one aspect she occludes to is the method or technique of meditation that she uses herself every day. She writes about her “mastery of techniques” but fails to inform the reader on which techniques these are. There are many techniques for meditation such as Mantra Meditation, Steady gaze (Trataka), Chakra Meditation, Vipassana Meditation, Raj Yoga Meditation, Zazen, and Nada yoga. Walker could have used any of these forms. Something that she does quite well throughout the piece is describing what mediation does for her personally. She goes through many specific examples where meditation practically saved her and helped her overcome her issues at the time. This is a very good article that one can appreciate because of the fact that Walker is able to come out and explain in great detail how she feels and tries to reach out and relate to the reader. She acknowledges that she has problems and found an effective way to deal with them. 

"Using Apperance To Characterize"

In Advanced Composition class, we were told to blog about a variety of things. In this blog I chose to respond to an article from Writer Magazine.

On the Writer Magazine website, there is an article called "Using Appearance To Characterize." In this article there is a question being answered and the question that is proposed is, "I understand appearance is often cited as one way to characterize, but isn’t this misleading?" The writers response to this article is that is can tell a lot about his personality.

I believe this is true but it can also be misleading as the question states.

These people may have to dress or act a certain way whither they like it or not. Sometimes the appearance of a character is quite misleading. The well dressed, snazzy lawyer's son may not want to dress in the thousand dollar suit and may not want to wear all of those expensive things but must because it's his father's retirement party. The way that people look don't always give away the personality but may shield them from their actual personality. The way that people act is based on their environment. So yes, I do believe that appearance being used to characterize is often misleading to a point.

At times though, this appearance may be exactly correlated to the characterization. The woman that is one the side of the street in 6 inch heels and a mini skirt is actually a prostitute. When the author wants to have the character be characterized by their appearance then they will  do so.

http://www.writermag.com/Columns/Ask%20The%20Writer/2011/02/Using%20appearance%20to%20characterize.aspx

My Thoughts At The Museum

Throughout the ages, man has wondered about many things such as mummies, ancient people, etc. I myself have wondered why the mummies turned out the way that they did. Curiosity got the best of me on the field trip. I was constantly thinking of how people are going to view us hundreds of thousands of years from now. We have figured out a process for burying people, which is the exact some for everyone and everyone is the same. Everyone is lying down with their arms either to the sides or crossed on their stomach. They're all placed genially into a coffin and situated all nicely in nice clothes and jewelry and makeup so that they look good, THEN buried. All people look the same and very posed, nothing about any person looks special.  Not one person is put into an awesome pose and placed into earth now. We do not take out brains and organs and all of that nonsense.

The people in the tombs or buried in the sand are much different. Each and every one of their tombs is special and unique whereas all coffins are similar and not very special. The people in the tombs or buried in the sand are also much different. The people that got buried in the sand because of the sand storms or natural death are different as well. Although their brains and organs were not taken out, they were in unique poses. The people either looked very clam or they looked absolutely terrified which shows their emotion at death making them very special.

All of this makes me wonder if in however many years, are people going to care about us like we care about the people of the past? We treat the mummies now so special and take such good care of them, placing these mummies in climate controlled areas and being very fragile with them. Makes me think about how future generations are going to treat our bodies after we are gone. If they are going to leave us in peace or dig us up and place us on display for the world to see. This is all that I thought about in the mummy exhibit.

The Details of My Night

       So last night was action packed at the least. Erin and I were finally about to settle in for the night at around 9:30. We were home and changed into our pajamas. Then suddenly I got a text that invited me bowling and I couldn't turn that offer down. So I invited Erin to come along and we went to the AMF bowling ally and bowled for a little bit. We stayed there with Carlos and his cousins until around 10:30. Erin was in love with one of his cousins which is completely understandable because he was gorgeous. After we were done bowling, Carlos suggested that we go to Buffalo Wild Wings so off we went while his cousins continued to bowl. There we got some wings and fries and had an overall good time but didn't leave until at least 11:30. Then Carlos said that he needed a ride home. He told us he lived by miller park near

60th street

, he was wrong. We ended up on Hawley road lost and low on gas. He had no clue where we were and neither did we. Suddenly Erin remembered that she has a GPS on her phone so she pulled that out and we went to find a gas station which was about a mile away. When we got to the gas station Erin handed Carlos her phone and told him to type his address in. After that everything got much simpler. Apparently he lives by Chili’s, which would have made getting to his house much easier if he had said so in the first place. We finally dropped him off at about 12:15. By then we were beyond tired and just wanted to go home and sleep. When we got home it was 12:30 but I suddenly remember that I had to do my Advanced Composition homework. I quickly read the chapter and took notes. I was dead after that and laid down to pass out.  

The Begining

Well hello there. I'm Amanda and this is the beginning of what's going to be my blog for Advanced Composition class. I'm not sure how to compose this, or even how to begin it but here I go. For our first assignment the class was told to write an introduction about ourselves. I honestly don't like to talk about myself because it feels like gloating but here it is. I'm going to list some random facts that may or may not be relevant to your understanding of me.

• I work at Culvers. It's not the most fun and is a lot of work but I enjoy some of the people.
• I have played Rugby for two seasons but no longer continue to do so because the team is gone.
• I enjoy running in my free time.
• I have four sisters and absolutely no brothers.
• When I was younger I was blind for about a month because I poured bubbles into my eyes.
• I have come to realize lately that I care too much and should stop doing that.
• I have also hit the block that comes with the 4th quarter of school.
• I hate math.
• I have a beagle that I absolutely hate because he is so annoying.
• I read when I have tome to do so, usually at night.

Well, that's quite a few facts and all I can come up with; although, I should talk about why I took this class. I dislike writing but took this class because I figured that it was a useful skill that I needed to become better at. Another reason is because if I become a better writer than the rest of high school and college should be somewhat easier. So, here I am. I hope this helped you get to know me a little better.